Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - Lola in the Mirror

It's difficult to put into words, but this book has reminded me to believe in art and magic and love of all kinds. Trent Dalton has a really beautiful way of twisting darkness and beauty together in a way that feels both poetic and like a genuine reflection of real-life.

Our protagonist is endearing, honest, creative, intuitive, curious and determined. A dreamer whose ultimate goal is to find herself. She has the ability to see strangers in their quiet moments and wants nothing more than to be seen in return.

Some favourite quotes:

"The world turns for us all. One day you'll wake up and you'll realise the world has turned back upright for you and every bad thing you didn't deserve on the downside is made up for by every good thing rushing at you on the upside. You'll look up one day and see some face and suddenly it'll all make sense and all that bad downside stuff will seem entirely necessary. It'll just be ordinary life, it'll just be the normal turning of the world, but it'll feel miraculous to you. It'll feel engineered for you. It'll feel designed, drawn up by one of those crazy sketches you do. You'll call it fate. You'll say it was meant to be. And maybe it was. Because that's all the world was ever meant to do. Turn. And you were meant to turn with it."

"Lucky moon, she told herself, because every moon you see is lucky because you are still alive to see it."

"When you scream 'colourful' underwater it looks and sounds like you're screaming 'I love you."

"Being alive is a thing that you touch and see and feel. As real a thing as electricity. Do you feel that? It's The Alive."

Content Warnings

rhibeetle17's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Overall enjoyed it and the mystery was enough to entice me towards the ending, but somewhat overly sentimental, saccharine and unrealistic in places.

Content Warnings

gillzzzo's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Took me a little bit of time to get into because (like all Trent Dalton books) it’s a little bit weird at times. Really ramped up towards the end though.

Very creative and quite emotional!!

Content Warnings

prime_minister_dinkleson's review

Go to review page

tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Content Warnings

whatzoreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

baikiebookie's review

Go to review page

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

My favourite Trent Dalton book! The pace was medium for most of the time and then it gets fast towards the end. Other Trent dalton books make me lose my focus half way through, but the pacing is much more steady. I love the geographical references. Other books did this a bit too much, but I didn’t feel it with this one.

I didn’t get the whole police officer saying it’s the saddest story ever heard. The story was saddest but didn’t live up to the hype of the saddest story ever.

Content Warnings

shannydubs's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

ryleee's review against another edition

Go to review page

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

If I wasn't reading this for book club, this probably would have been a DNF... This attempted to present some large and important themes (domestic violence, homelessness, addiction), but I felt as though it just trivialised these topics, reducing them to gaudy one-liners (Tyrannosaurus Waltz, Tyrant Lizard), or only superficially reflecting (throwaway sentences about the impact of the 2032 Olympics on those without stable housing, or the incredibly brief mention of settler violence in the opening-ceremony-bit). It tried to be a window (or... a mirror) into everything, and in doing so, became an empty view.

The main character doesn't develop at all, despite experiencing a kaleidoscope of traumas. She seems to bounce from one horror into the next without even a glance in the rear-view. The plot does develop, but only through the most whip-lash-inducing twists that are so unbelievable that it's incompatible with the hyper-real setting that the author spends every second word reiterating. There always seems to be someone or something that arrives for the narrator at exactly the right time, so she is able to avoid self-reflection entirely. The only remotely likeable character is Charlie.

The entire 'Danny' sub-plot is borderline elitist. I'm not sure if the author was intending this character to be ironic? I can't even describe my dislike of his storyline. Charlie sums it up perfectly on pages 338-9. It's skimmed over but the narrator stalks Danny. For a book that is so vocal about domestic violence, this was a double standard for me.

Perhaps I took this book too literally. There are some segments that are solid. It invokes some emotion, mainly through the ancillary characters. I wish it focused more on the narrator's internal journey.

Content Warnings

More...